European security system and European integration of Ukraine have been discussed online at UzhNU
On Wednesday, May 25, 2022, Uzhhorod National University hosted an online meeting with Valeriy Chaly, a scientist, politician, and diplomat, and students of the Faculty of History and International Relations. He was a Deputy Head of the Administration of the President Petro Poroshenko (2014–2015), Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the United States (2015–2019). At present, he is the head of the board of the Ukraine Crisis Media Center.
Deputy Dean of the Faculty of History and International Relations Assoc. Prof. Vitaliy Andreyko, noted the importance of holding meetings with high-ranking diplomats as they help students to deepen their knowledge of the European and Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. Students’ desire to gain new knowledge and develop even during the war is a posiive thing.
Valeriy Chaly began the conversation by mentioning that around twenty years ago, in 1995, while working for the Presidential Administration, he had to write reports for the President Leonid Kuchma on the topic: "What is the European Union?", "Why does Ukraine need to join NATO?". Therefore, now, in 2022, we can say that we our path towards the EU integration has been very productive and considerable so far.
In order for a young person to answer the question of what role Ukraine's European and Euro-Atlantic integration plays, it is necessary to have an answer to another important question: what will the reaction of the collective West, the European Union and the whole world be to the russian aggression in Ukraine? We are making a huge contribution to the security of the whole Europe. However, not all European countries are able to accept these sacrifices and efforts adequately. Although it should be noted that the EU has not been so consolidated for a long time. Despite this unification around Ukraine, Euroscepticism is still common. We mean not individual countries, but individual politicians, deputies of the European Parliament, whose interests are more personal rather than political. In this respect, we can also mention Olaf Scholz, the chancellor of Germany, who contributed to the delay in the delivery of heavy weapons to Ukraine. The position of Viktor Orbán, the Prime Minister of Hungary, regarding the embargo on Russian oil is also the cause for concern. In spite of this, the EU structure has and will use its levers of influence on them.
As Valeriy Chaly noted, the main goal of all unions and organizations created after the Second World War was to prevent the recurrence of war. The EU attempted to take the responsibility for avoiding confrontations on the European continent, and in search of the most effective model of foreign security policy, it often only responded to challenges. From the beginning of the 1990s, when there appeared threats from the East, the main task of the EU was to show a new response to external security challenges. It was the expansion of the EU towards the east: from East Germany, Austria... to the borders with Ukraine. These actions were aimed at the maximum possible absorption of the vacuum between the EU and the threats from the East.
Currently, there are two security organizations operating on the European continent. 21 of the 28 EU member states are NATO members, and two more countries have applied to join this organization. For a long time, Austria, Sweden, and Finland held were neutral, however, they changed their positions after the russian invasion.
As for Ukraine, 3 models of security policy have already been formed:
- the one currently implemented in the country is a model of defense policy (according to Article 51 of the UN Charter, we are defending our territory). This model is very expensive for the state, even with the support of our partners;
- a model where Ukraine is part of the collective security system of European countries through NATO;
- an intermediate-stage model, when Ukraine will conclude bilateral agreements with the major nuclear countries such as the USA and Great Britain, which will help not only with their guarantees and intelligence, but also with weapons and other resources.
Another specialist the students had the honour to talk to was the analyst of the "New Europe" Center, the ambassador of the European youth in Ukraine - Marianna Fakhurdinova. She familiarized the audience with the data from the Center's research on the sentiments in the capitals of European countries regarding granting Ukraine the status of an EU candidate in June. Friends of Ukraine who support such a decision are the neighboring countries: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, etc. People in the countries of old Europe: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Hungary are more skeptical. The analyst also mentioned the countries with the more neutral attitude to the issue that are guided by the conclusion of the European Commission and the positions of Germany and France. They are Greece and Cyprus.
The researcher named the arguments of the countries that oppose granting Ukraine the EU candidate status. They include the need to carry out internal reform of the EU, the need to preserve the unity of the policy towards Ukraine at the EU and national levels; granting such a status to Ukraine will not contribute to the resolution of the conflict with russia; the countries of the Western Balkans may be offended; the issues of the accession of Moldova and Georgia remains open, etc. However, Ukraine can get a lot of advantages from the EU candidate status: a political signal and de-escalation, a practical tool for the reconstruction of Ukraine after the war, public support for Ukraine's accession to the EU is 91%, public opinion in the EU countries - 66%, effective sectoral integration even during the war, stability of institutions, high labor potential, strengthening of the security and defense component of the EU, access to EU financial instruments aimed at supporting and developing the EU candidate countries (IPA, IPAD, individual programs and EU economic aid projects).
It is worth noting the students who asked relevant questions about the security situation in Europe, Ukraine and neighboring countries. One of the questions was regarding the role of Belarus in Europe, the possibility of providing security guarantees for Ukraine outside of NATO membership...
